Employee Surveys Basics

Employee surveys can be an invaluable resource in obtaining insight into employee concerns

Employee surveys can be an effective way for companies to receive feedback regarding issues such as their employees’ level of satisfaction, how they feel about business operations and identifying areas for improvement.

You can have surveys developed, administered and analyzed in-house, or your organization may wish to contact consultants to educate you on employee surveys basics. Another option is to utilize online survey software to assist you in developing a successful employee questionnaire.

Keys to successful employee questionnaires include:

1. Anonymity. In order to get a true measure of employee attitudes, employees need to know they can express their concerns without fear of retaliation.

2. Action. Management must recognize and address the concerns and ideas presented to them in the employee feedback forms.

3. Follow-up. Employees should complete follow-up employee satisfaction questionnaires to allow you to see how the company is resolving issues raised by employees, whether employee morale has improved and whether other issues have come up since the previous employee survey.

 

Research online the various types of employee surveys you can administer

Review the various types of surveys you can administer, and decide what you want your survey to focus on. Are you interested in employees' opinions regarding company benefits, workplace morale or performance of management? If you wish to obtain employee feedback regarding two or more issues, it may be beneficial to divide the questions into a series of two or more surveys. If a survey is too long, you risk the employee of feeling overwhelmed or growing bored and not completing the survey.
Try: SuperSurvey provides an overview of the various types of employee surveys. SurveyZ.com provides tutorials on many aspects of creating an online employee survey. The site also offers a library of free employee surveys that you can access and modify to suit your needs.

Consult employee survey providers to assist your company with employee information surveys

If finances permit, incorporate the resources of employee survey firms to assist in the development and administration of surveys. Hiring a consultant also assures employees that they have anonymity. This assurance will increase the likelihood that employees will complete the surveys with honesty because they have no fear of retaliation.
Try: Infosurv and Talentmap are companies providing employee surveys basics to companies through the development, administration and analysis of survey results. Both companies offer surveys relating to topics such as employee satisfaction, relations between management and employees, benefits, training and company policies and procedures.

Use survey software to create and administer your surveys if finances are limited

Survey software can guide you through the process of developing your own company surveys geared toward evaluating various aspects of employee attitudes.
Try: HR-Survey allows you to custom design your own employee surveys. SurveyMonkey.com not only provides a library of existing surveys templates covering a wide range of topics, but they also offer several sensible pricing plans that are based on survey needs.

 

• Treat the survey as a corporate communications survey. Utilize surveys as a vehicle to create open communication between management and staff by reviewing and discussing survey results. One way to maintain communication is to establish a committee consisting of individuals representing every work group in the organization that routinely meets with management to discuss issues identified in survey results.

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